When, If Ever, Should We Actively Disobey or Disarm Police?

In a Police State, when the Police speak (or beat or tackle or shoot), you don't challenge them. You simply conform to their will and obey.

You don't think for yourself in that moment. You don't critically evaluate what one person is doing to another when the one doing it is wearing a badge. And you certainly don't act out in resistance to or correction of the behavior perpetrated by the one wearing the badge.

You just listen for orders from the Police and you do as you're told. You obey.

Whatever the Police deem must be done, you let them do.

That's how things work in a Police State, where the State is god in practice and the armed enforcers of its (ever-shifting) standards of "justice" are to be just as revered, respected and feared as the "god" on whose behalf they have been armed, badged and uniquely protected from "legal" consequence. (After all, they might have to - you know - get brutally lawless with folks for the sake of making them obey, um, "the law.")

The recent case of Corporal Eric Casebolt's assault of a young black woman in McKinney, Texas, has re-re-re-ignited a flame that only seems to be intensifying with each recorded act of apparently wild misconduct on the part of those given guns, badges and the power to do what sure seems like pretty much anything they want to do with relative impunity (at least in the moment).

Before we go any further, please let me make plain that I have had and continue to have dear, trusted, honorable friends who work (or have worked) at some level of civil government in the role of "law enforcement." While I am greatly concerned about the manner in which we understand and pursue the concepts of law, policing and law enforcement in America, I am in no way disputing the honor or integrity of all present day Police or "officers of the law." My aim is not to disparage or discourage all Police. To the contrary, my hope is to encourage everyone - Police included - to actively pursue a biblical understanding of law and law enforcement so that we all might better use our individual talents and passions for justice in a manner that conforms with the Word of God. We all need and benefit from that Christ-centered approach to law and law enforcement.

While I am not going to get into the details of the Casebolt assault here, I do hope to use it as a launch point to ask (and encourage you to ask) some very serious and important questions. Questions like:

When, if ever, are we not only entitled but morally obligated to resist and correct "law officers" who brazenly trample any semblance of true (meaning biblical) law?

When, if ever, are we morally obligated to physically defend young women or girls from assault, even when the assailant in question is wearing the badge and uniform of a civil government officer?

When, if ever, are we morally obligated to disarm and arrest an "officer of the law" who is acting in a flagrantly lawless manner?

What are we to expect from a "Police force" empowered by guns, badges, "legal" protection from the laws that apply to us, and a compliant populace to do the bidding of a Corporate State that is increasingly open in its hostility toward Christ (and, by extension, Christians)?

Most importantly: What are the biblical arguments for or against anything resembling what we know now as "Police" in America? How does Scripture define and limit the nature and roles of civil government and civil magistrates? How does Scripture empower and obligate the non-magistrate or non-civil government official to defend themselves and others from acts of open lawlessness?

These are questions that Christians had better start asking and answering (especially while they are still allowed to openly do so).

Of course, even asking these questions and considering them seriously requires us to do something that the American Corporate State and its most thoroughly programmed drones desperately do not want to see us do, that being: Think for ourselves. Or even worse: Think biblically.

The State and its systems are all purposefully designed to promote happy, thoughtless, uncritical compliance on the part of the masses...quite the opposite of "testing all things in light of Scripture," wouldn't you say?

While I'm not making any specific points regarding any specific instance of alleged Police lawlessness, I do hope to remind myself and encourage others to use this opportunity to test our concepts of Police, civil government, and the role, responsibilities and limitations of the State by light of the perfect, sufficient Word of God.

So let's get into the Word and trust that we really, truly have been perfectly and sufficiently equipped for "every good work" - including civil government and law enforcement - by the Nature of God as revealed in His Word. (See: 2 Timothy 3:17)

Only through that loving obedience to Him can we ever hope to truly restore peace, justice and prosperity to our land...or any other.

I'd like to close by repeating the opening section and asking two simple questions:

In a Police State, when the Police speak (or beat or tackle or shoot), you don't challenge them. You simply conform to their will and obey.

You don't think for yourself in that moment. You don't critically evaluate what one person is doing to another when the one doing it is wearing a badge. And you certainly don't act out in resistance to or correction of the behavior perpetrated by the one wearing the badge.

You just listen for orders from the Police and you do as you're told. You obey.

About the AuthorScott Buss

Scott Alan Buss is a husband, father, speaker, designer, blogger and
member of Christ the King Church in Middle Tennessee. Through his work at
Fire Breathing Christian (www.FireBreathingChristian.com), he aims to
equip and encourage believers to better understand, proclaim, and apply
the lordship of Christ in every realm of creation.